Why does Snape wants DADA job if it cursed? LONG

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 148882

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "lagattalucianese" 
<katmac at ...> wrote:
<SNIP>
> >
> La Gatta Lucianese:
> 
> But not, I think, for children or young adults, an audience that
> expects a more artistic and emotionally satisfying structuring. 
Kids
> don't really want to read about people doing laundry, however
> realistic it is. And I think they'd be really bothered by character
> motivation that doesn't make sense.
> 

Yeah, I understand what you mean.  And I think you are right about 
JKR's primary audience.

Of course, as Nora has pointed out that kind of thing cuts both 
ways.  JKR's primary audience probably isn't nearly as fascinated by 
the adults and their motivations as this list is.  I think  in this 
they are probably much closer to JKR's own attitude toward things.  
Although many of us might find it fascinating for Snape and 
Dumbledore and others to be psychologically dissected and their 
motivations and understandings lovingly and thoroughly explained, I 
just don't think JKR is very interested in that at all (not totally 
disinterested, but it just isn't very high on her priorities list).  
Whatever explanation we get, whether a major revelation or not, is 
highly unlikely to be the kind of thing this list wants (i.e. where 
the adults are deeply examined with their motivations linked to 
childhood and adult fears and dreams with complicated and plausible 
webs of belief and emotion).  

To put it another way, I disagree with Magpie that Snape and his 
motivations may be the key to everything.  I think JKR has made it 
very clear that HARRY and HIS motivations are the key to 
everything.  The motivations and beliefs of other characters, even 
of Dumbledore himself, just aren't very important when compared to 
Harry's.  If Snape ends up being very important, the person whose 
motivations and understandings undergo loving examination will be 
Harry.  Even if Snape is the catalyst for that examination, his 
importance will clearly lie in his interaction with Harry's story 
arc.  In the end, I just don't think we're going to get the intense 
emphasis on Snape's own story arc that many people want.  Snape just 
isn't the hero.


Along those lines, I disagree that kids necessarily find it 
upsetting when people's motivations don't make a lot of sense.  I 
think it depends a lot on what role the person in question ends up 
playing in the story.  Villains never really make sense, that's part 
of the reason they're villains.  Heroes or "good" characters, 
however, are supposed to make at least a surface kind of sense.  So 
a lot of it depends on what role JKR intends Snape to play.  If he 
is a quasi-hero, then kids probably would expect his motivations to 
make sense.  If he is a (quasi) villain or clear supporting 
character, I don't know that they would be particularly demanding of 
him with regard to clear motivation.



Lupinlore